In the end Texas Tech baseball team defeats TCU Showgirls – Fort Worth Star Telegram (blog)

DON’T WORRY – THIS IS NOT A LONG READ … TCU’s return to the College World Series will first include a re-match with Big 12 regular season champion the Texas Tech Red Raiders – an ideal time to revisit one of the more popularly absurd stories from both teams this season.

Back in late April, TCU hosted Texas Tech in a baseball series at Lupton Stadium in Fort Worth during which the Red Raiders’ water broke.

Horrible puns aside, members of the TCU Showgirls were upset with members of the Red Raiders baseball team and claimed they were throwing water and dirt on them as they performed between innings.

All of this was too good to pass up so I had some tongue-in-cheek fun with it, which some readers were not happy with me about. One reader asked, “REallyl, could the tone of this article be any more condescending?”

Yes – REallyl – it could have been considerably more condescending. Please don’t tempt me.

Red Raiders baseball coach Tim Tadlock said the team had a tradition of throwing small cups of water straight into the air, and dirt, to “water the tree” – a saying he started in the offseason for team bonding. He flatly denied that his team intentionally threw water at the Showgirls dance team.

Whatever went down was enough to warrant TCU game managers to re-locate the dance team to the TCU side of the field – which is where they should be performing in the first place.

On the final day of that three-game series, TCU Showgirl Katie Josephine Tweeted “@TTU_Baseball when the TCU Showgirls have to dance in front of home dugout bc tech players are so disrespectful and spray water/throw dirt.”

As Tadlock pointed out, there is no dirt in front of the dugouts at Lupton Stadium.

An administrator from the Big 12 offices called Texas Tech athletic department to investigate this this crisis. The Tech administrator also supported Tadlock’s claims that his team did nothing wrong. The Red Raiders went so far as to supply video tape evidence of the incident to clear their good names.

During the few innings the TCU Showgirls performed in front of the Texas Tech dugout, the video evidence supplied by Tech showed that the Red Raiders were indeed simply tossing water straight into the air.

Members of the Red Raiders baseball team can now proceed with their lives without having to live in the shadows.

What no one wants to admit about this whole stupid thing is that having a dance team perform at a college baseball game is awkward and uncomfortable.

Unlike dance teams that perform at football or basketball games, there is no natural barrier between the performer and the patron. When a girl stands atop the dugout, or even the field, to perform her routine, she can be a matter of a few feet from a fan to create a violation of personal space. Give the girls some room.

Former TCU Showgirl Jessica Morgan Tomes wrote to me, “This took me back to those awkward days of dancing on the dugout…I maintain my original argument, cheerleaders have no place at a baseball game!”

I’m in complete agreement with Mrs. Tomes on this but the evolution of the baseball in-game entertainment on the college level now includes cheerleaders, too.

And, per the video tape, the Texas Tech baseball players never did throw any water at the TCU Showgirls which means the TCU baseball team will have to settle this score on the field in the College World Series.

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cmendez@star-telegram.com